The last time I went for a new set of eyeglasses, I was offered four different levels of scratch and glare protection. Having once been a salesperson, I trust no one. Is there really any difference between the cheapest and the best? Will a coating actually help me drive more safely at night?
Will the coating help you drive more safely? I have no idea. However, the coating will increase your visual acuity, and reduce the starburst pattern you see around lights at night if you are wearing glasses. I thoroughly recommend an anti-glare coat. Is there a difference between the cheapest and the best coat? It depends what the differences are. Generally, you want your anti-glare coat to have an oleophobic and hydrophobic coat on top. This helps keep your lenses cleaner. Ask them what the difference between the coats is, and if they can’t tell you anything besides “This coat is less scratchful!!!” Get the cheapest. I am more inclided to believe this is a marketing gimmic used by your optical dispensary. Most labs do not want to run four seperate coaters just for AR coat alone, it is a waste of space and money. Why not just choose one and go with it and charge whatever it is you have to charge to make it profitable? My personal favorite for AR coats is Crizal. If the company is using their coats, that you can be assured of a good product.
If you want to have your glasses scratch less? Wash them.
Don’t just wipe them. Rinse the buggers off when they get dirty. Use a little dishsoap on the whole frame and lens at least once a week. That alone will help keep your glasses scratch free.
~Aqua
Longtime glasses makin’ chick.
I once got glasses with an anti-reflective coating. While the coating did reduce glare, it also made it hard to keep the glasses clean - I had to wash the glasses several times a day. Any little bit of skin oil was very visible. I suspect the problem was that the index of refraction of skin oil was too different from that of the coating. Anyway, I became dissatisfied and had the coating stripped off, which solved the problem.
Get the scratch coating, the extra one you have to pay more for. Trust me on this.
AR (anti-reflective) coatings aren’t really necessary on eyeglasses. They’re designed to keep the inside surface of the lens from reflecting light coming from behind you (or bouncing off your eye area) back into the eye. However, in practice, you’ll be wearing sunglasses most of the time when that’s really an issue, and frankly you’ll be squinting a bit anyway if you aren’t.
It’s the weird greenish (sometimes purplish, though that’s rare now) tint visible on the inside of the lens.
I had AR coating and was frustrated with the smearing and fingerprinting. I didn’t get the coating on my next pair of eyeglasses. While working in an office environment surrounded by fluorescent lights, the reflections drove me crazy. I got the new lenses coated. I learned to wash regularly to deal with the fingerprinting.
It’s not essential, but it’s a usefull coating. Some people also like the fact that it reduces the appearance of the lenses (from a purely aesthetic standpoint).
I’ve never noticed an impact in night driving with AR coating, nor has my husband. YMMV.
Is that the one that crazes and flakes when you splash cutting fluid on it? I had a pair that lasted all of two weeks because of this.
Some of these coatings are not at all fond of certain chemicals. If you work with anything funny, it can pay to ask before you get the coating. Of course the eyeglass people probably won’t know, and you’ll end up screwed anyway, but that’s life.
I tried out the “anti-glare” coating in the optometrist, and it did absolutely zilch for reducing glare for me. If anything, it just made everything less clear. I think it is more intended to reduce the reflectivity of the lens as others see it, supposedly to make you LOOK better, not to SEE better. I decided not to buy it.
Might be, but most of us don’t work with stuff that’ll strip the paint off your car just from fume exposure.
How does anti-scratch coating work? If it’s just a coating, what stops it from scratching off?
Back when I wore glasses, I always opted for glass lenses, because the anti-scratch never seemed to actually work for me. Of course, glass is heavier. ::shrug::
Anti-scratch coating is a coating made of material that is more resistant to mechanical scratching than either the lens surface itself, or than the other coatings that have been applied to the lens. It works by being hard when some lens materials are comparatively soft.
What stops it from scratching off is the fact that it is bonded chemically to the lens surface. In some cases an additional layer must be deposited to make the anti-scratch material adhere to whatever material has already been deposited, and/or to prevent the anti-scratch from crazing/cracking/spidering/spotting.
Another vote for hating the anti-reflective coating. It makes the slightest bit of dust or grease on your glasses excessively visible and irritating. Do not skimp on the UV coating, however.
FTR, untreated polycarbonate or CR-39 lenses block approximately 99% of UV already. If you’re getting glass lenses, you need UV coating, but not with plastics.
Obviously, they don’t block anything that gets around the lens, so get big glasses.
Hmm, I have a lot of problems with starring when driving at nite. Anything that could help here?
When I was at the optometrist, I tried on various lenses with coatings, and looked out at the lights. Nothing made the slightest amount of difference, some made it worse.
Presumably you’ve consulted with an eye doctor about the starring – that can be a sign of glaucoma, IIRC.
It’s from my Lasiks.
It’s from my Lasiks.
As for glass and UV- the Master Speaks:
Oh, is that what the AR coat is designed to do? Hmmmm, I do confess I learned different. I wonder why moth’s eyes have an interference coat then. I don’t imagine there is a lot of light bouncing around in their wee little heads.
Anti-reflective coats were developed quite a while ago by a scientist working for Zeiss Optics. The coatings were kept secret by the German military because their use on army optics allowed for better vision, better targeting, and therefore a strategic advantage during the war. Until relatively recently interference coats were kept to the realm of camera and telescope optics because their cost was relatively expensive. When the cost decreased, allowing for relatively cheap coats on eyeglasses lens manufacturers discovered that for some BIZARRE reason people do not care for their glasses well at all.
People are usually astonished when I tell them that they have to clean their glasses regularly. I can’t for the life of me figure out why this come as such a shock. I mean, you wear clean clothes daily don’t you?
Lenses with AR coats can be “difficult” to clean if you don’t occasionally clean your glasses too. Oils and face detritus gets trapped between the frame and the lens, and builds up into gross wads of face cheese around the nose pads. Take off your glasses. Look at the nose region. Is there nasty wads of crusty green oil and skin build up?
Yes?
For gods sake man, WASH THEM! (pant pant, eyes crazy, foam flying from mouth) Sorry, I am a bit psychotic on this point. 
The lenses now even come with an oloephobic coating as I said above. This will help you clean the lenses better. This will also help the lenses stay cleaner.
AR coats are also not for just making the lenses look fantabulous. If that were the case, we wouldnt’ bother putting them on camera lenses, nor would the Germans have kept the technology a military secret. These coatings increase the light transmission through the lens. This increases your visual acuity because more information reaches your retinas. The coatings also reduce eye strain because you are not trying to see through a glare on your lenses.
Anti-glare coatings are fast becoming the industry standard in eye wear because of their overwhelming approval with doctors, opticians and clients. Look to the future guys, because soon these coats will be on all glasses and it will cost extra to keep them off.
Glasses that take splash damage like cutting fluid, or worn in a chemical rich environment where the air will cause the coatings to craze should be safety glasses, and be replaced as necessary to protect your EYES. You can always get new glasses. New eyeballs however? A bit more pricey.
~Aqua
Optician,
ABO, NCLE
Dr Deth.
AR coat MAY improve the starburst pattern you see at night. However, it is unlikely to rid you of it entirely, or even much at all. Unfortunately what you are likely seeing is where your pupil expands larger than the ablation zone (part of the eyeball that they lased off). Light can refract off of the uneven edge. Sometimes this can be improved by another zap or two to your eyes. Sometimes it cannot. It depends on oddly enough where you are located, (Max size of ablation zone varies from country to country), how thin your corneas are, and how large your pupils expand in the dark.
This is why my optometrist suggested that I go to Canada if I decide to have mine done. He also said the zone was to be expanded in the U.S. eventually. I’m still waiting.